The present invention broadly relates to a new and improved construction of a lap winder or lap winding machine.
More specifically, the lap winder or lap winding machine serves for producing laps from slivers or the like. This lap winder further is of the type comprising two rotatable lap rollers for supporting a lap during winding and a drive motor for driving the lap rollers through the intermediary of a transmission or gearing.
Such types of lap winders or lap winding machines are known to the art. They are employed for the production of laps which are then fed to a combing machine. Slivers, for example, drafted slivers withdrawn from sliver cans, as a general rule are delivered by means of different transport or conveying rollers, a drafting arrangement and a roller calender to the lap which is supported upon the lap rollers of the lap winder. A common drive motor drives the conveying rollers, drafting arrangement and roller calender by means of individuals parts or elements of the transmission or gearing. When one of the infed slivers is missing or when the lap has reached a predetermined size, the lap winder is stopped, i.e. the drive motor is de-activated or stopped, and a brake which is either integrated into the drive motor or acts directly upon the motor shaft is operated since, in particular upon absence of the sliver there is desired a rapid stoppage of the lap winder.
When the lap is relatively large, for example, there are present 25 kilograms or more of batt at the lap and the operating speed is high, for instance, 120 m/min. batt speed which equals the lap circumferential velocity, then when the drive motor or drive motor shaft is braked, due to the kinetic energy of the lap rollers and the lap, there arises a heavy loading of the transmission or gearing elements or components between the drive motor and the lap rollers. This can lead to premature wear of the transmission or gearing elements.